1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer having a front surface on which at least a circuit pattern is formed and on which a surface protective film is attached.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the semiconductor manufacturing field, the wafer tends to increase in size year by year. Also, the wafer has become thinner and thinner to improve the mounting density. In order to reduce the thickness of the wafer, back grinding is carried out to grind the back surface of the semiconductor wafer. During back grinding, a surface protective film is attached on the front surface of the wafer to protect the circuit patterns formed on the front surface of the wafer.
The wafer, after being back ground, is transported to a wafer processing apparatus. The wafer processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-068293 includes a wafer positioning unit, a mount unit and a surface protective film peeling unit. The wafer is set in reference position by the wafer positioning unit, and integrated with a mount frame in the mount unit by being attached a dicing tape thereon. After that, the surface protective film attached on the front surface of the wafer is peeled off by the surface protective film peeling unit.
According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-068293, however, the three units including the wafer positioning unit, the mount unit and the surface protective film peeling unit are built in the wafer processing apparatus, and therefore, the intervals between the units are reduced. In the case where the dicing tape or the peeling tape is loaded (set) on the mount unit or the surface protective film peeling unit, respectively, the other units may constitute an obstacle. It is therefore not easy to load the tape on a predetermined unit. For a similar reason, the cleaning or the maintenance of each unit is a bothersome job.
A comparatively long interval between the units of the wafer processing apparatus would facilitate the loading of the tape and the maintenance work of each unit. However, size and weight of the wafer processing apparatus will be increased as a whole. Therefore, the space and the load capacity corresponding to the resultant bulky wafer processing apparatus is necessary.
This invention has been achieved in view of this situation, and the object thereof is to provide a wafer processing apparatus in which the tape can be loaded and the maintenance of each unit can be carried out easily without increasing the apparatus size.